Barry followed the glance of his friend and saw a red wallet lying on the asphalt, in front of a Pennsylvania Avenue store. He ran over and picked it up. It was his own. He opened it and looked into one side of the wallet. It was empty. He turned to the other and looked in, and to his satisfaction, found a solitary ten-dollar bill. He showed it to Joe Hart. "What do you think of it?" he asked. "I think the man that stole the wallet took the money out of the one side and thought that that was all there was in it. Then he threw the wallet away to get rid of it." After that the boys walked back to the postoffice, where Barry bought a postal order for ten dollars. He destroyed the letter which he had written to his mother originally, and began the composition of a second one. It was a slow and painful task. "I don't know just what to say," he said. "I've told mother that I got sixty-eight dollars for my month's pay and I've explained how I used part of it in paying Mr. Carlton and another part in settling what I owe Mrs. Johnson. I'm sending her the other ten dollars, but she'll wonder what I've done with the rest. I haven't got the nerve to tell her that I've lost it. What would _you_ do?" "Don't know," said Joe, aimlessly. "Maybe it would worry her," said Barry. "I'll just--" "I say, Barry," interrupted Joe, with his queer expression; "do you know the best way?" "No." "Just tell her the truth--tell her exactly what happened." And Barry did. CHAPTER VIII AN UNEXPECTED MOVE Mr. Carlton now had his Naval Repair Station measure in good shape and he considered the time ripe for its introduction in the House of Representatives. One morning, when the Speaker called for new bills, he handed in the typewritten document on which all of his ambitions and his hopes were pinned. "The bill presented by the Gentleman from Maine is referred to the Committee on Naval Affairs," announced the Speaker. Barry, who had carried the precious draft from the Congressman's desk to the Speaker's platform, could not resist the opportunity of whispering a word of exaltation to his patron. "She's in at last, Mr. Carlton," he said, "and you ought to feel proud and happy." The Congressman sighed. "She's in, Barry, but that's only the first step in the battle." "But it's a good bill," insisted the boy, earnestly, "and it has been approved by the Navy Department." "Not yet, but I hope it will be soon," corrected Mr. Carlton. "Then it will pass, sure." The statesman smiled at the boy's enthusiasm. "I'm not so positive of that," he said. "I've known many a good measure to go to a Committee and after that never see the light of day again."